After 6 weeks of navigating unfamiliar China, a few weeks in Vietnam was going to be a breeze...after we battled our way through customs that is. The orderly customs procedure we experienced at the airport last time we came to Vietnam was the polar opposite of the land border crossing from China. Queues were non-existent as was air-con or any resemblance of order. Every part of your body was required to push your way through the sweaty crowd towards the customs window. Actually reaching the window was an impossibility, so throwing accuracy was needed to get your passport through said window and into the hands of a customs officer, who, rather than processing each passport as it came to him, decided to stamp dozens of passports at a time and return them at random, causing a frenzy amongst the waiting crowd. It was exhausting, but once finished we were back in 'nam and very happy about it!
Upon arriving in Hanoi, we found that the hostel we'd booked online didn't actually exist... awesome. We weren't exactly surprised by this, but the problem was quickly solved by our discovery of a nearby hotel owned by the same company who compensated us nicely for this mis-hap, by giving us a much better room than we had booked, for the same price! Whoot whoot!
Having covered the sites of Hanoi on our last trip, we spent our days leisurely walking around and consuming delicious baguettes and coffee in copious numbers of cafes. Basically, we were laziness personified... although we did manage to get ourselves to a water park where we spent the day floating around in over-chlorinated water, getting stared at (and mildly harassed) by locals. One middle aged man even tried to pull Amy's shorts off before insisting on a series of swimming races in the wave pool with Claire. Fun times.
One place we hadn't explored on our last visit to Vietnam, was the North-West town of Sapa, so we headed there for a few days to wonder around the beautiful mountain town and its surrounding villages. As usual, the weather was not kind to us and we spent our time in Sapa dodging storms, but this gave us more time to lazily sit in cafes and chat with the local hill-tibe girls selling crafts on the streets.
From Sapa it was onto Ho Chi Minh City, a place with some sentimental value for us as it is where we first met eachother back in 2006 (and despite what it sounds like, we're not a couple). We enjoyed re-visiting our old haunts and were amazed at all the changes that have taken place in the last 3 years.
The main reason we re-visited HCMC was to catch up with a dear friend we made in Korea - the one and only Tommy Yikes! Those of you who know Tommy, can probably imagine the hilarity that ensued. In addition to a lot of pub time, Tommy invited us to spend an afternoon with him at his school - so we went along curious to see the man in action. It will come as no surprise that we were tricked into teaching Tommy's class for an hour... Australian history to be precise. It's the kind of subject you need a little prepartion for, but as Tommy's middle school world history textbook failed to mention our country at all, we had to get creative with the facts. It was kind of fun to be back in the classroom....even if we did make up half of the things we taught! At least a whole class of Vietnamese kids now know about Kylie Minogue and K-Rudd.
Getting Tommy to act like a 'normal' person is not easy...But we love him
At the end of our time in HCMC we were forced to do the unthinkable....we separated for a whole week!! In the last 15 months the longest we hadn't seen each other was 3 days (and once again, no, we're not a couple). Amy visited her grandparents in Perth while Claire was left to her own devices in Vietnam. Fear not though, we were reunited in Phnom Penh, Cambodia a week later!
I want some pate baguette... banh mie, juseyo!
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